East Hampton, U.S.A. — The Retreat, a non-profit organization serving victims of domestic violence for the past 25 years, is pleased to announce their 4th Annual Juried Art Show. In the previous three years of the Juried Art Show the Retreat has garnished both national and international attention by reaching artists who have submitted works for consideration as far as South Africa, San Paolo, Brazil, the Midwest, and the entire Eastern seaboard. The message is clear: artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures are showing they care and are coming together to try to end domestic violence.

The show benefits the Retreat’s Domestic Violence Services and is open to all artists with work in Photography, Painting, 2D, 3D, and Sculpture (no video art). The work cannot be larger than 24″ x 36″.

The deadline to enter is August 1, 2012 . Entry fee is $50 per entry, limit 3 entries (1 entry is $50, 2 is$100, and 3 is $150). Actual work will not be judged but have to be submitted in JPEG form. For complete rules and entry form, visit http://www.hamptonsjuriedartshow.com/.

This is a chance to have artwork judged by distinguished members of the art world. The jurors of this competition are:

• Kathryn Markel – Owner of art gallery Kathryn Markel Fine Arts with locations in Bridgehamptonand New York City
• Christina Mossaides Strassfield – Museum Director/ Chief Curator of Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, NY

The top 25 entries, as decided by the jurors, will be in a group show at Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York, opening October 27th – November 5, 2012. The best in show will be chosen after the show is hung by the jurors and will win a solo exhibition at the gallery, at a date to be determined by the gallery owner and winner, within one year of winning. The winner of the 1st Annual Juried Art Show is now represented by a major gallery in New York City.

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Shane Levene is a writer, artist, musician, poet. He is, some might argue, a better poet than a musician, a better artist than a poet and a better writer than an artist. However, the role that Shane Levene inhabits most fully is, undoubtedly, that of a semi-functional heroin addict.

The entries in Levene’s blog, “Memoires of a Heroinhead,” are not all about the drug. To be sure, the author often evokes a typical, if uncompromisingly realistic “Trainspotting”-esque literary snapshot– a low-rent French apartment, whitewashed walls decorated with grotesque patterns of dried blood, a man-sized receptacle for used syringes and burnt papers– but he writes about other things too: a future and a past without heroin.

The loosely organized memories, such as they may be, brings forth the most haunting pictures of the author’s life as it is, as it was and, occasionally, as it might be. The son of working class, northern English addicts– one of whom was butchered by notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen– Levene’s childhood appears to have been almost entirely misspent. Stories of teenage youths dressing up in drag to visit Glam clubs in Soho pepper the blog’s homepage, living side by side with recounted memories of domestic abuse, murder and soul-crushing poverty.

A consummate story teller, Levene is at times brutal and jarring, at others wistful and romantic. The kind of autobiographical self-reflection, typical to the memoir genre, that usually adulterates the graphic immediacy of the narrator’s experiences, is noticeably lacking in these vignettes. Granted, some posts are significantly better than others; Levene’s writing is inconsistent and occasionally contrived. But, particularly in the case of Levene’s most recent offerings, oftentimes they are vividly beautiful and utterly beguiling. Not to mention very, very sad.

In one particularly upsetting post, the raconteur relates how some of his closest friends deliberately attempted to infect him with HIV through shared needles. In another account, Levene poignantly describes an incident in which he overhears a young girl being beaten to death in the apartment above his, but is unable to call the police for fear of them discovering his drug paraphernalia.

The rest of the blog, the parts that aren’t directly about the drugs, is filtered through the creative lens of someone who, honestly and truly, has come to terms with the fact that they are going to die– not in 30 years, but maybe next year, next month, next week, today.

Levene’s portrait of his life as an addict is bleak, his experiences routinely horrific and far removed from the world of the non-junky. Just like Christiane F. before him, Levene faithfully chronicles some of the most harrowing physical and mental consequences of his addiction.

Levene writes, “I choose the needle. We must live and die by our swords. We cannot blame our enemy for us taking up arms. That is a bitter and all consuming road to take.”

It is this stark perspective that defines Levene’s literary persona in his memoirs. Essentially, on the page, a heroin addict is who Levene is, and, as things stand, it appears that Levene’s addiction is also inherent to all he can be. Indeed, as another literary heroinhead, William S. Burroughs once wrote: “Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.”

Image Courtesy of  Stuart Monk / Shutterstock.com

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On  V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, founded by Tony Award-winning playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, announced the launch of a new global campaign: One Billion Rising.

This year-long campaign, V-Day’s most ambitious yet, will culminate on February 14, 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, when women, activists and concerned citizens across the world will organize community gatherings to express their outrage, demand change, strike, and dance in defiance of the injustices they have suffered.

Beginning on V-Day, activists launched the campaign at over 5,800 colleges and community events across the world.  From Zambia to Poland to Malaysia, local V-Day activists will have ignited and spread the message of One Billion Rising.

“More than 1 out of every 3 women on this planet will experience violence during her lifetime. With 7 billion people on the planet, that’s one billion women.  Stopping this violence is as crucial as addressing the issues of disease, hunger, and climate change,” said Eve Ensler.

“One Billion Rising is a global strike, a call to refuse to participate until rape and rape culture ends.  It’s a solidarity reach, a new refusal, and a new way of being.” Over the past 14 years V-Day has mobilized activists from more than 140 countries and worked tirelessly on a grassroots level to demand an end to all forms of violence against women and girls.

In the face of resistance V-Day activists have raised consciousness, changed laws, funded rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters (often keeping the doors open), educated their communities, and raised over $85 million for groups doing the essential work of ending violence and serving survivors. Still, violence against women and girls persists and takes atrocious new forms. One Billion Rising is an ultimate protest, a battle cry, an inspiration, and a global call to action.

One Billion Rising activists are encouraged to focus on local issues affecting women and girls including work places, home life, laws and legislators, media that supports violence against women and girls, and governments or religious institutions that have not done enough to stop it.  Some may even decide to stop working or participating until the violence culture ends.

As part of this outreach, V-Day will provide a monologue called “Over It,” written by Eve Ensler, to be read at productions of The Vagina Monologues and other V-Day events.  They will challenge its college and community organizers to mobilize their friends, families, and networks to commit to rising up on February 14, 2013 to express their outrage about what they are “over” in relation to the prevalence of violence against women and girls.

Activists are also encouraged to write their own Over It monologues to give voice to their outrage.  V-Girls activists will also play a vital role in the “Over It” campaign. The announcement of One Billion Rising kicks off V-Day’s 2012 season of events and campaigns.  Over 1,850 colleges and communities will host V-Day benefit events raising funds and awareness locally, spotlighting the women and girls of Haiti, and beginning their One Billion Rising initiatives.

Events center around Ensler’s seminal play The Vagina Monologues, but include readings of V-Day’s anthology A Memory, Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer and Any One of Us: Words from Prison, documentary film screenings of V-Day: Until The Violence Stops and What I Want My Words To Do To You, and Congo and Haiti Campaign teach-ins and house parties.

For the second year in a row, each event will highlight Haiti, shining a global spotlight on the issues facing women and girls in the region post-earthquake, and V-Day’s campaign to end the violence.

On February 14, 2013, together V-Day activists will move the earth, activating women and men to dance across every country. The celebration of One Billion Rising will be a worldwide happening.

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Of all the families who seek temporary shelter in New York City, 40 percent have had at least one prior shelter stay. To reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for homeless parents and children in New York City and throughout the country, the independent nonprofit research organization Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness released a draft of ‘A New Path: An Immediate Plan to Reduce Family Homelessness’ during ICPH’s conference Beyond Housing: A National Conversation on Child Poverty and Homelessness.

Read the draft report here.

The plan proposes using the family shelter as a tool for parents with limited education and work experience, as well as for victims of domestic violence, those with mental health and substance abuse issues, and a history in the child welfare system.

While many families are forced to go to shelters because of the lack of affordable housing in the United States, ‘A New Path’ argues that approximately 15 percent of families living in shelters are further held back by lack of education, work experience, and family support.

For this subpopulation, ‘A New Path’ argues that shelter stays should be extended to 12-18 months and used as an opportunity for parents to immerse themselves in an on-site learning, career-building, and healthy environment. Although some residents will have a longer initial shelter stay, this will lead to less recidivism.

“New York City has long led the way in confronting the challenge of homeless families and should serve as a model for reducing recidivism,” said ICPH President and CEO Ralph da Costa Nunez. “This is not a 10-year plan, but an immediate action that can serve as a guide to cities, suburbs, and rural communities throughout the country.”

These shelters—designated in the plan as ‘Tier III’— should offer on-site employment opportunities for shelter residents starting at minimum wage; job search, readiness, and retention training; and GED classes.

Other advancements ‘A New Path’ recommends:

• Some ‘Tier III’ shelters should be designated ‘Safety First’ residences and serve domestic violence victims. In 2010, there was only bed space for 70 percent of families deemed eligible for DV Shelters. These shelters would offer the same safety and support as those at DV shelters.
• ‘Child Wellness Residences’ would provide on-site assistance to families with active child welfare cases and those receiving voluntary preventive services. On average, 670 active child welfare cases and 1,300 closed cases were identified each month among homeless families in New York City in 2010.
• ‘Health and Recovery Residences’ would provide targeted services to those with mental health and substance abuse concerns.

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